1916
Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar. Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 ** The Royal Army Medical Corps first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. * January 13 – WWI: The Battle of Wadi occurs between Allied British and Ottoman Empire forces, during the Mesopotamian campaign in modern-day Iraq. * January 24 ** In Browning, Montana, the temperature drops from +6.7°C to -48.8°C (44°F to -56°F) in one day, the greatest change ever on record for a 24-hour period. ** Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the national income tax. * January 29 – WWI: Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time. February * February 3 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada are burned down. * February 9 – 6.00 p.m. – Tristan Tzara "founds" the art movement Dadaism (according to Hans Arp). * February 11 ** Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control. ** The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert. ** The Romanian football club Sportul Studenţesc is founded. * February 21 – WWI: The Battle of Verdun begins in France. March * March 1 – Liberal British Columbia Premier Harlan Carey Brewster's term in office ends. * March 8–March 9 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. A garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away. * March 15 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa; the 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory. * March 16 ** Mexican Revolution: The U.S. 7th and 10th Cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the border to join the hunt for Villa. ** The [[Sussex (French passenger ferry)|SS Sussex]] is torpedoed, resulting in the Sussex pledge. * March 22 ** John Ronald Reuel Tolkien marries Edith Bratt (they would serve as the inspiration for the fictional characters Lúthien and Beren). ** The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored. April which was distributed during the Easter Rising.]] * April – The light switch is invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg. * April 20 – The Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings. * April 22 – The Chinese steamer ship Hsin Yu capsizes off the Chinese coast; at least 1,000 are killed. * April 24–April 30 – The Easter Rising occurs in Ireland. * April 27 – WWI – Battle of Hulluch: The 47th Brigade, 16th Irish Division is decimated in one of the most heavily concentrated German gas attacks of the war. May * May 5 – United States Marines invade the Dominican Republic. * May 16 – Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, which is to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, following the conclusion of WWI, into French and British spheres of influence. * May 20 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting (Boy with Baby Carriage). * May 21 – Britain initiates daylight saving time. * May 22 – The case of United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola is decided. * May 31 – June 1 – Battle of Jutland: The Royal Navy and the German Navy battle to a draw. June * June 4 – The Brusilov Offensive, the height of Russian operations in WWI, begins with their breaking through Austro-Hungarian lines. * June 5 ** Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ** The [[HMS Hampshire (1903)|HMS Hampshire]] sinks off the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with Lord Kitchener aboard. * June 15 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America. http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-507.aspx July * July 1 – November 18 – WWI – More than 1 million soldiers die during the Battle of the Somme, including 60,000 casualties for the British Commonwealth on the first day. * July 1 – July 12: At least one shark mauls 5 swimmers along of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, resulting in 4 deaths and the survival of one youth who requires limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws. * July 2 – Battle of Erzincan: Russian forces defeat troops of the Ottoman Empire in Armenia. * July 8 – July 16- Massive flooding caused by 2 different hurricanes devastates western North Carolina. * July 15 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing). * July 22 – In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 injuring 40 (Warren Billings and Tom Mooney are later wrongly convicted of it). * July 29 – In Ontario, Canada, a lightning strike ignites a forest fire that destroys the towns of Cochrane and Matheson, killing 233. * July 30 – German agents cause the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey, an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least 7 people. August * August 7 – WWI: Portugal joins the Allies. * August 9 – Lassen Volcanic National Park is established in California. * August 21 - Peru declares neutrality * August 25 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation creating the National Park Service. * August 29 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act. September , September 21, 1916]] * September – Bulgaria takes Dobruja from Romania. * September 2 – British pilot William Leefe-Robinson becomes the first to shoot down a German airship over Britain. * September 5 – Release of D. W. Griffith's film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages in the US. * September 11 – A mechanical failure causes the central span of the Quebec Bridge, a cantilever-type structure, to crash into the Saint Lawrence River, killing 13 workers. * September 13 – Mary, a circus elephant, is hanged in the town of Erwin, Tennessee for killing her handler, Walter "Red" Eldridge. * September 27 – Iyasu V of Ethiopia is deposed in a palace coup, in favour of his aunt Zauditu. October during WWI.]] * October 12 – Hipólito Yrigoyen is elected President of Argentina. * October 14 – Perm State University is founded in Russia. * October 16 – Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic - a forerunner of Planned Parenthood. * October 21 – Friedrich Adler shoots Karl von Stürgkh, Prime Minister of Austria. * October 27 – Battle of Segale: Negus Mikael of Wollo, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zauditu. November * November 1 – Paul Miliukov delivers the famous "stupidity or treason" speech in the Russian State Duma, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government. * November 1 The first 40 hour work week officially began in the Endicott-Johnson factories of Western New York * November 5 ** The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by a joint act of the emperors of Germany and Austria. ** Honan Chapel, Cork, Ireland, a product of the Irish Arts & Crafts Movement (1894–1925), is dedicated. * November 7 ** U.S. presidential election, 1916: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeats Republican Charles E. Hughes. ** Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. * November 13 – Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription. * November 18 – WWI – Battle of the Somme: In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle, which started on July 1. * November 21 – The White Star Liner HMHS Britannic, sister ship of the RMS Olympic and the legendary RMS Titanic, sinks in the Mediterranean Sea after hitting a mine. 30 lives are lost. * November 23 – WWI – Eastern Front: Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is occupied by troops of the Central Powers. December * December 12 – In the Dolomites, an avalanche buries 18,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers. * December 17 – Grigori Rasputin is murdered. * December 18 President Woodrow Wilson marries Mrs Edith B Galt in Washington * December 22 – The British Sopwith Camel aircraft makes its maiden flight. It was designed to counter the German's Fokker aircraft. * December 23 – WWI – Battle of Magdhaba: In the Sinai desert, Australian and New Zealand mounted troops capture the Turkish garrison. * December 30 – Humberto Gómez and his mercenaries seize Arauca in Colombia and declare the Republic of Arauca. He proceeds to pillage the region before fleeing to Venezuela. * December 31 – The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the nation at the time, burns to the ground. Date unknown * Oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller closely related to codeine is first synthesized in Germany. * Rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute is designed and made by the Bascom boys (Raymond, Mel, Earl) and their father John W. Bascom at Welling, Alberta Canada. * Cours de linguistique générale by Ferdinand de Saussure is published. * The Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, are cancelled. * Food is rationed in Germany. * Ernst Rüdin publishes his initial results on the genetics of schizophrenia. * The Netherlands is hit by a North Sea storm that floods the lowlands and kills 10,000 people. * Robert Baden-Powell founds the Wolf Cubs Scouts in Britain, changed to Cub Scouts in the USA. * Louis Enricht claims he has a substitute for gasoline. * Gustav Holst composes The Planets, Opus 32. * Bray Studios creates the Farmer Al Falfa series, the first of the Terrytoons. * The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States. * The Enrico Parodi sinks while in tow off The Carracks in Cornwall, England. In fiction * In the 1941 film Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane runs for New York governor and loses. Also in 1916, Emily Monroe Norton divorces him and, in either this year or in 1917, he marries Susan Alexander. Births January–February * January 3 ** Bernard Greenhouse, American cellist (d. 2011) ** Betty Furness, American actress and consumer activist (d. 1994) ** Warren King, American cartoonist (d. 1978) * January 7 – Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975) * January 9 – Peter Twinn, English mathematician and WWII code-breaker (d. 2004) * January 10 – Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004) * January 12 – Pieter Willem Botha, President of South Africa (d. 2006) * January 17 – Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr., American politician (d. 2011) * January 18 – Silviu Brucan, Romanian author and politician (d. 2006) * January 19 – Harry Huskey, American computer designer * January 22 – Henri Dutilleux, French composer * January 23 – David Douglas Duncan, American photojournalist * January 24 ** Arnoldo Foà, Italian actor ** Marvin Creamer, American sailor ** Rafael Caldera, President of Venezuela (d. 2009) * January 27 – Stjepan Filipović, a People's Hero of Yugoslavia (d.1942) * January 28 – Dottie Hunter, Canadian Professional baseball player (d. 2005) * February 9 – Tex Hughson, American baseball player (d. 1993) * February 10 – Louis Guttman, American-born Israeli university professor (d. 1987) * February 11 ** Ivan Hristov Bashev, Bulgarian Foreign Minister (d. 1971) ** Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998) * February 14 ** Sally Gray, English actress (d. 2006) ** Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese film director (d. 1996) ** Denham Harman, American gerontologist ** Marcel Bigeard, French military officer (d. 2010) * February 15 – Ernest Millington, English politician (d. 2009) * February 18 – Maria Altmann, Austrian Holocaust survivor and heiress (d. 2011) * February 20 – Jean Erdman, American dancer * February 23 – Retta Scott, first woman to receive screen credit as an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios (d. 1990) ** Svend Asmussen, Danish jazz violinist ** Cesar Climaco, Filipino politician (d. 1984) * February 29 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994) March–April * March 1 – Emelyn Whiton, American Olympic sailor (d. 1962) * March 3 – Paul Halmos, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 2006) * March 4 ** William Alland, American actor, producer, writer and director (d. 1997) ** Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (d. 2000) ** Hans Eysenck, German-born psychologist (d. 1997) * March 5 – Jack Hamm, American cartoonist (d. 1996) * March 11 – Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995) * March 13 ** John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1981) ** Lindy Boggs, American politician * March 14 – Horton Foote, American writer (d. 2009) * March 15 ** Harry James, American musician and band leader (d. 1983) ** Frank Coghlan Jr, American actor (d. 2009) * March 16 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings (d. 2010) * March 17 ** Ray Ellington, British singer (d. 1985) ** Volodia Teitelboim, Chilean author and politician (d. 2008) * March 19 – Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990) * March 20 – Pierre Messmer, French politician (d. 2007) * March 24 – Donald Hamilton, Swedish-born writer (d. 2006) * March 26 ** Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995) ** Harry Rabinowitz, British film composer and conductor * March 29 ** Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Minnesota and Presidential candidate (d. 2005) ** Peter Geach, British philosopher * March 31 – Lucille Bliss, American voice actor * April 2 – Menachem Porush, member of Israeli Knesset for Agudat Yisrael (d. 2010) * April 3 ** Peter Gowland, American photographer (d. 2010) ** Herb Caen, American journalist (d. 1997) * April 5 ** Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003) ** Albert Henry Ottenweller, American Bishop * April 10 – Lee Jung Seob, Korean oil painter (d. 1956) * April 11 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (d. 1983) * April 12 ** Beverly Cleary, American author ** Benjamin Libet, American pioneering scientist in the field of human consciousness (d. 2007) * April 13 – Phyllis Fraser, American actor and publisher (d. 2006) * April 15 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American department store heir (d. 1982) * April 18 – José Joaquín Trejos Fernández, President of Costa Rica (d. 2010) * April 22 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (d. 1999) * April 24 ** Stanley Kauffmann, American film critic ** Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002) * April 25 – R.J. Rushdoony, American founder of Christian Reconstructionism (d. 2001) * April 26 ** Dorothy Salisbury Davis, American writer ** George Tuska, American comic strip artist (d. 2009) ** Vic Perrin, American voice actor (d. 1989) * April 28 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (d. 1993) * April 30 ** Claude Elwood Shannon, American information theorist (d. 2001) ** Robert Shaw, American conductor (d. 1999) May–June * May 1 – Glenn Ford, American actor (d. 2006) * May 6 ** Robert H. Dicke, American experimental physicist (d. 1997) ** Sif Ruud, Swedish actress (d. 2011) * May 8 ** Chinmayananda, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1993) ** João Havelange, Brazilian industrialist and football league president * May 10 – Milton Babbitt, American composer (d. 2011) * May 11 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002) * May 14 – Sammy Luftspring, Canadian boxer (d. 2000) * May 15 – Vera Gebuhr, Danish actress * May 16 – Ephraim Katzir, President of Israel (d. 2009) * May 17 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer (d. 2008) * May 20 ** Trebisonda Valla, Italian athlete (d. 2006) ** Owen Chadwick, British author and historian * May 21 ** Lydia Mendoza, American musician (d. 2007) ** Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002) ** Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997) * May 26 – Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972) * May 31 ** Bert Haanstra, Dutch filmmaker (d. 1997) ** Bernard Lewis, British historian ** Jack Manning, American film, stage and television actor (d.2009). * June 4 – Robert F. Furchgott, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009) * June 5 – Eddie Joost, baseball player and manager (d. 2011) * June 6 – Hamani Diori, former President of Niger (d. 1989) * June 8 – Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004) * June 9 ** Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense (d. 2009) ** Jurij Brězan, Sorbian writer (d. 2006) * June 12 – Raul Hector Castro, American politician * June 15 ** Herbert A. Simon, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001) ** Olga Erteszek, American undergarment designer and lingerie company owner (d. 1989) * June 16 – Phil Chambers, American actor (d. 1993) * June 18 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, Colombian politician (d. 2005) * June 23 ** Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian educator (d. 1986) ** Len Hutton, English cricketer (d. 1990) * June 24 – William B. Saxbe, American politician (d. 2010) July–August * July 1 ** Olivia de Havilland, British-born American actress ** Lawrence Halprin, American architect (d. 2009) * July 2 ** Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German pilot (d. 1982) ** Zélia Gattai, Brazilian author and photographer (d. 2008) * July 3 – John Kundla, American basketball coach * July 4 ** Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose") (d. 2006) ** Fernand Leduc, Canadian painter * July 6 – Harold Norse, American writer (d. 2009) * July 8 – Jean Rouverol, American actress, screenwriter, and author * July 9 – Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005) * July 11 ** Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2002) ** Gough Whitlam, twenty-first Prime Minister of Australia ** Reg Varney, British actor (d. 2008) * July 14 – Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author (d. 1991) * July 18 – L. Patrick Gray III, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 2005) * July 19 – Phil Cavarretta, baseball player (d. 2010) * July 22 ** Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (d. 1949) ** Larry Hooper, American singer and musician (d. 1983) * July 25 – Fred Lasswell, American cartoonist (d. 2001) * July 27 – Elizabeth Hardwick, American literary critic and novelist (d. 2007) * July 28 – David Brown, American producer (d. 2010) * July 30 – Dick Wilson, American actor (d. 2007) * July 31 – Bill Todman, American game show producer (d. 1979) * August 1 – Fiorenzo Angelini, Italian Cardinal * August 5 – Kermit Love, American puppeteer (d. 2008) * August 6 – Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister of Malta * August 14 – Ralph de Toledano, American conservationist and author (d. 2007) * August 16 – Iggy Katona, American race car driver (d. 2003) * August 20 – Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian chess player (d. 1984) * August 21 – Geoffrey Keen, English actor (d. 2005) * August 24 **Hal Smith, American actor (d. 1994) **Rosalie Isabel Folk (née Selinger), legendary wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother (d. 2012) * August 25 ** Van Johnson, American actor (d. 2008) ** Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2003) ** Saburō Sakai, Japanese fighter ace (d. 2000) * August 27 ** Martha Raye, American actress (d. 1994) ** Larry Thor, Canadian actor (d. 1976) * August 28 – Jack Vance, American writer * August 29 – Luther Davis, American screenwriter (d. 2008) * August 30 – Shag Crawford, American baseball umpire (d. 2007) * August 31 ** Daniel Schorr, American journalist (d. 2010) ** John S. Wold, American politician September–October * September 1 ** Dorothy Cheney, American tennis player ** Joseph Minish, American politician (d. 2007) * September 13 – Roald Dahl, Welsh author (d. 1990) * September 14 ** John Heyer, Australian documentary filmmaker (d. 2001) ** Eric Bentley, British-born American critic and playwright * September 15 ** Margaret Lockwood, British actress (d. 1990) ** Frederick C. Weyand, U.S. Army General (d. 2010) * September 16 – Frank Leslie Walcott, Barbadian labour leader (d. 1999) * September 17 – Mary Stewart, British fantasy and mystery writer * September 18 – John Jacob Rhodes, American politician and lawyer (d. 2003) * September 21 – Zinovi Gerdt, Russian actor (d. 1996) * September 23 – Aldo Moro, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1978) * September 27 ** Frank Handlen, American artist ** S. Yizhar (aka Yizhar Smilansky), Israeli author (d. 2006) * October 3 ** Shelby Storck, American television producer (d. 1969) ** James Herriot, Scottish veterinarian and author (d. 1995) * October 4 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2009) * October 9 – Robert Brubaker, American actor (d. 2010) * October 10 – Bernard Heuvelmans, Belgian-French cryptozoologist (d. 2001) * October 12 – Alice Childress, American actress, playwright, and novelist (d. 1994) * October 14 – C. Everett Koop, United States Surgeon General * October 15 – Hassan Gouled Aptidon, President of Djibouti (d. 2006) * October 19 ** Jean Dausset, French immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009) ** Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1994) * October 26 – François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996) * October 30 – Leon Day, American baseball player (d. 1995) * October 31 – Carl Johan Bernadotte, Prince of Sweden (d. 2012) November–December * November 1 – John C. Harkness, American architect * November 4 – Walter Cronkite, American television journalist (d. 2009) * November 5 – Jim Tabor, baseball player (d. 1953) * November 10 – Louis le Brocquy, Irish painter * November 11 – Robert Carr, British politician * November 12 – Rogelio de la Rosa, Filipino actor and politician (d. 1986) * November 14 – Sherwood Schwartz, American television writer and producer (d. 2011) * November 15 – Bill Melendez, American animator (d. 2008) * November 16 – Daws Butler, American voice actor (d. 1988) * November 23 ** Michael Gough, British actor (d. 2011) ** P. K. Page, Canadian poet (d. 2010) * November 24 – Forrest J. Ackerman, American writer (d. 2008) * November 26 – Gerhard Unger, German tenor (d. 2011) * November 27 – Chick Hearn, American basketball announcer (d. 2002) * November 28 ** Mary Lilian Baels, queen of Léopold III of Belgium (d. 2002) ** Ramón José Velásquez, President of Venezuela * November 29 – Fran Ryan, American actress (d. 2000) * December 1 – Wan Li, Chinese government official * December 5 – Hilary Koprowski, Polish virologist and immunologist * December 7 – George Russell Weller, retired salesman known for the Santa Monica Farmer's Market incident (d. 2010) * December 8 – Richard Fleischer, American film director (d. 2006) * December 9 – Kirk Douglas, American actor * December 11 – Dámaso Pérez Prado, Cuban musician (d. 1989) * December 14 – Shirley Jackson, American writer (d. 1965) * December 15 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004) * December 16 – Birgitta Valberg, Swedish actress * December 18 ** Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973) ** Douglas Fraser, Scottish-born union leader (d. 2008) * December 19 ** Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German political scientist (d. 2010) ** Roy Ward Baker, English film director (d. 2010) ** Jack Agazarian, English WWII spy (d. 1945) * December 25 – Graciela Naranjo, Venezuelan singer and actress (d. 2001) Deaths January–June * January 4 – Bruce Sloss, Australian footballer (b. 1889) * January 8 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (b. 1884) * January 9 – Ada Rehan, Irish-American Shakespearean actress (b. 1859) * January 13 – Victoriano Huerta, President of Mexico (b. 1854) * January 17 – Arthur V. Johnson, American actor and director (b. 1876) * February 6 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867) * February 12 – Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (b. 1831) * February 13 – Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter (b. 1864) * February 19 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (b. 1838) * February 20 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1844) * February 23 – Hugo von Pohl, German admiral (b. 1855) * February 28 – Henry James, American writer (b. 1843) * March 4 – Franz Marc, German artist (b. 1880) * March 20 – Ota Benga, a Congolese pygmy brought to America as part of a racist exhibition at the Bronx zoo. (b. circa 1883) * March 24 – Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (ship sinking) (b. 1867) * April 11 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (b. 1864) * April 19 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor (b. 1839) * April 21 – Georges Boillot, French Grand Prix driver (killed in action) (b. 1884) * May 3 – Padraig Pearse, Irish nationalist (b. 1879) * May 11 – Max Reger, German composer (b. 1873) * May 11 – Karl Schwarzschild, German physicist (b. 1873) * May 12 – James Connolly, Irish socialist (b. 1868) * May 13 – Sholom Aleichem, Ukrainian Yiddish writer (b. 1859) * May 21 – Artúr Görgey, Hungarian military general and politician (b. 1818) * May 31 – Horace Hood, British admiral (b. 1870) * June 5 – Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British field marshal and statesman (b. 1850) * June 6 – Yuan Shikai, Chinese military official and politician (b. 1859) * June 7 – Émile Faguet, French writer and critic (b. 1847) * June 9 – Richard C. Saufley, American naval aviation pioneer (b. 1884) * June 12 – Silvanus P. Thompson, British professor, member of the Royal Society, and author (b. 1851) * June 18 – Max Immelmann, German World War I fighter ace, (b. 1890) * June 24 – Victor Chapman, French-American fighter pilot (b. 1890) * June 25 – Thomas Eakins, American realist painter (b. 1844) * June 29 – Georges Lacombe, French artist (b. 1868) July–December * July 6 – Odilon Redon, French painter (b. 1840) * July 16 – Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845) * July 23 – Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852) * July 29 – Claude Charles Castleton, Australian VC recipient (killed in battle) (b. 1893) * August 3 – Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist (executed) (b. 1864) * August 5 – George Butterworth, English composer (b. 1885) * August 31 – Martha McClellan Brown, American activist (b. 1838) * September 4 – José Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832) * September 8 – Friedrich Baumfelder, German composer, conductor, and pianist (b. 1836) * October 7 – James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (b. 1849) * October 11 – Otto of Bavaria, Bavarian King (b. 1848) * October 28 ** Oswald Boelcke, German World War I fighter ace, (b. 1891) ** Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist (b. 1838) * October 29 – John Sebastian Little, American politician and congressman (b. 1851) * October 31 – Charles Taze Russell, Protestant evangelist, forerunner of Jehovah's Witnesses (b. 1852) * November 9 – Ion Dragalina, Romanian general (killed in action) (b. 1860) * November 10 – Walter Sutton, geneticist and physician (b. 1877) * November 12 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer (b. 1855) * November 14 ** Henry George, Jr., American politician (b. 1862) ** Saki, British writer (b. 1870) * November 15 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846) * November 21 – Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (b. 1830) * November 22 – Jack London, American author (b. 1876) * November 23 – Lanoe Hawker VC, British World War I fighter ace, killed in action by Manfred Von Richthofen (b. 1890) * November 24 – Hiram Stevens Maxim, American firearms inventor (b. 1840) * December 8 – John Porter Merrell, American admiral (b. 1846) * December 16 – Ognjeslav Kostović Stepanović, Serbian inventor (b. 1851) * December 28 – Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer (b. 1835) * December 29 – Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic (b. 1869) Nobel Prizes * Physics – not awarded * Chemistry – not awarded * Medicine – not awarded * Literature – Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam * Peace – not awarded References * Early Advertising Publications: "Fishing for Suckers" From the American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress Category:1916